Storming out of the Great White North came a posse of new
players, not noob players by any means. A few folks from Canada
had asked online about competitive play of Puerto Rico
and I invited them to come on down to the WBC. They came and
they brought their 'A' game. At least four advanced to the quarterfinal
and two took the first two spots in the tournament. Not since
the days when a Quebec contingent dominated the Age of Steam
tournament year after year has one group made such a dominant
impression. The question now is ... can they do it again?

We also saw "rule 8" used for the first time in
memory. Players can abandon their new colonists, taking them
out of play and perhaps speeding the end of the game by draining
the colonist pool.

Rule 8: Use of all roles and privileges is always optional,
with the exception of shipping during the Captain phase (which
is mandatory unless using the Wharf). In the event a player declines
colonists, during the Mayor Phase, such colonists are to be removed
from the game and not placed back on the ship or distributed
to other players.

I intend to do some research on this rule interpretation,
so check the Preview rules for next year's tournament for any
change.

The results below show that it was a bad year to be seat 2,
even with bidding for seat position.

Finishes by seat in the heats:

Finish

Seat 1

Seat 2

Seat 3

Seat 4

First

13

6

18

12

Second

10

12

12

15

Third

14

13

11

11

Fourth

12

18

18

10

Finishes by seat in the elimination rounds:

Finish

Seat 1

Seat 2

Seat 3

Seat 4

First

6

0

2

2

Second

1

2

4

3

Third

1

3

2

3

Fourth

2

5

2

2

Game
ended (if reported) because:
Colonists ran out: 20
Buildings completed: 25
Victory Points ran out: 2
Many games had both buildings complete and colonists run out
by the end of the final round.

Looking at the way the winner's points were distributed, broad
winning strategies were:
Shipping: 14 victories, only 1 of 10 in the elimination rounds
Building: 34 victories, including 7 in the elimination rounds
Mixed: 11 victories, including 2 in the semifinals. Mix is up
to a 4 point difference between "red" number points
and VP chips, not including bonus building points.

This year, building strategies dominated the games. In fact
the Final game's building was powerful enough to overcome the
runner-up's 28 VP for shipping.
Raphael Philbert-Larivee in Seat 1 during the Final played an
austere building game with only Hacienda, Large Market and all
the production buildings plus the other players couldn't stop
him building both the Guild Hall on Turn 10 and the Residence
on the 15th and last turn. With a chance to mayor the Residence
and an early Hacienda to fill his plantations, the 17 bonus points
assured the win. In Seat 3, Mathieu Lague-Gomez tried to craft
(six times) and ship his way to victory (28 VP chips), but came
up seven points short, plus 1.5 for his bid. Marcy Morelli was
caught a few coins short for third. Eric Kleist was too far downstream
of all the crafting to benefit from it and ended a distant fourth.